When Jim Troughton led Warwickshire to the championship title last season, the Bears fans were thrilled to see the trophy lifted by one of their own.
Troughton has been connected to Edgbaston since the age of ten. They don’t come more Bears through-and-through than him. And cricketers don’t come more respected – as an individual or an ambassador for his county.
Take this tribute from Kumar Sangakkara. One of the finest batsmen of his generation, ‘Sanga’ has pretty much seen and done it all during a long career with Sri Lanka and, in 2007, the Bears.
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“My season for Warwickshire was one of the best years of my life as a cricketer and a person,” he said. “And I will always treasure the privilege of walking alongside Jim Troughton on to the field.”
Sangakkara is far from alone in his high opinion of the Bears’ captain. But the road which Troughton trod to its present groovy location has been far from stress-free.
He had to deal with a ridiculously premature England call-up and subsequent immediate jettisoning by the selectors. A back problem deleted bowling from his armoury. And there have been thin times with the bat,
There have even been moments when the thoughts of this truest of true Bear toyed with the notion of pastures new. But then, two years ago, Ian Westwood resigned the captaincy. And the rest? Well...
“I was out of contract that year and hadn’t been offered an extension,” Troughton said. “So you never know.
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“You spend your career at a club and have ups and downs and moments where you think ‘maybe it’s not here where my future is going to be’.
“Warwickshire is in my blood and I could never seriously see myself playing anywhere else but, during the tough times when I was out of the team, I was thinking maybe I could look elsewhere.
“But I stuck with it, battled through and got out the other side. And that experience is part of the reason I enjoy captaincy so much. I love trying to work out how people perform best. It’s something I can see myself doing when my playing career is over.
“The captaincy came at just the right time for me. Ever since I stopped bowling (not that I was the most potent of slow left-armers!) I was getting to that point in my career where I was batting and fielding and doing my best at backward point and being a team man, but there was something missing.
“I was aware of that, so when Ashley Giles offered me the captaincy it just felt right. I had always been a bit hesitant when thinking about leading the county, thinking I had to earn the right and have had a few years experience under my belt.
“But the timing was just right. We have a good young squad and I had been around long enough to be an established senior player.
“As soon as I took it on, it felt right. People say that captaincy gets in your head and is hard to leave at work – and it is certainly a big job. But my love for Warwickshire and the game of cricket is such that I don’t see it as a burden, I see it as an honour.
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“There have been rough times and no doubt there are some tough times ahead but I have got two good years behind me which have given me a lot of experience. I feel very confident for next season.”
Troughton has entered 2013 in a very good place in is career. Captain of the county champions, he has done much in his two years in charge to suggest that, a little way down the line, he will be well-equipped to emulate Giles and coach his beloved Bears.
Since making his debut in 2001, the 33-year-old has travelled far – and known some turbulence. Less than two years after his county debut he was called up for England’s one-day squad, a selection as premature as is was bafflingly illogical, Troughton having excelled much more in four-day cricket than the limited-overs game.
Pitched in against Pakistan and South Africa, he struggled and was peremptorily discarded. That cack-handed treatment by England’s selectors left scars which took years to fully heal.
“It came too quickly,” Troughton said. “I had one full season with Warwickshire where I scored runs in four-day cricket then had a good start the next year and was called up in a form of cricket in which I was averaging below 20.
“I didn’t know my one-day game well enough to excel against the likes of South Africa and Pakistan. It was a fantastic experience and a very proud moment but to say it all came too quickly is an under-statement because, as soon as you are on telly, everyone has an opinion on your technique.
“Michael Vaughan had just taken over as captain and they were bringing in new blood with a view to the 2007 World Cup. I was part of that wave but the media jumped on the ‘Doctor Who’ line and it turned into a bit of a circus.
“It is disappointing that I didn’t show enough to get on the Bangladesh tour the following winter and be around the squad and maybe learn a bit more about my game. But they chose Andrew Strauss as the left-hander so it probably wasn’t a bad decision!
“In retrospect, to have been picked in the five-day stuff against Zimbabwe would have been a nicer introduction than facing Shaoib Akhtar!” he said. “Afterwards it wasn’t a case of wanting to play for England again, it was making sure I was doing my job for Warwickshire. And suddenly it felt like a job.
“I loved playing first-class cricket, it was my dream come true, but it was a very difficult period because I was fresh to the game then suddenly had represented my country and there were expectations that took the fun out of the game. But it happens a lot when guys get into the England team then out again. It can be a bit of a shock to the system - look at Alex Loudon and Tim Ambrose.”
Loudon bailed out of cricket early to work as a stockbroker but Ambrose, like Troughton, battled through to return to his best as a player. They were two pillars of last season’s Bears success - success which was even sweeter in the light of challenges faced and overcome.
“Playing for England was great,” Troughton said.
“But captaining the side to the championship was a dream come true and, hopefully, just the start of the best period of my career.”